Improvement in pressing and cutting tobacco



H. MOORE.'

Preparing Tobacco.

Patented' Dec. 16, 1845.l

UNTTED STATES PATENT Ormea HERVEY MOORE, OF REEDSVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA.

IMPROVEMENT INV PRESSING AND CUTTING TOBACCO.-

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 4,314, dated December16, 1845.

specication, in which- Figure 1 is a perspective representation ot` theapparatus preparatory to being submitted to the action of the press;Fig. 2, a vertical transverse section of the same, and Figs. 3 and 4 aplan and transverse vertical section of a different modeofapplying thesame principle.

The same letters are used to indicate like parts.

Instead of making the lumps of tobacco into rolls and pressing them intothe dat shape in a former, in the usual way as generally practiced, Ilay the leaves evenly over a bed, A, within a movable frame of a sizesutlcient for any given numberof lumps to a thickness suitable for saidlumps when pressed. A section ofthe bed A and movable frame C is shownin Fig. 5. 'Ihe frame serves to con tine the leaves to a proper size,which their ends are doubled in to suit. A layer ot' ne covering-leavesis irst placed on the bed, then the ordinary tilling, and lastly a layerof the tine coveringleaves. The frame O is then removed from the bed,and a frame, D,Figs. 1 and 2, hereinafter deseribed,is put on top ot'the layer ot' tobacco and the whole submitted to the action ot' apowerful press, by which the whole mass of tobacco is pressed anddivided into any required number of lumps and the covering -leaves drawntight and smooth over the surface. rIhe frame D is provided with twoseries of blades, a and b, made ot' iron, steel, or other suitablemetal, one series parallel with the sides of the frame and crossing theother at right angles, leaving quadrangular spaces between them ot thelength, width, and depth ot' the lumps to be formed. Ihe lower edges ofthese blades should be thin and rounded smooth, so as to sever thetobacco under the operation of the press, but not so sharp as to cutwith facility.

| The covering-leaves are drawn down by these edges to smooth thesurface before they are secured. The lower surface ofthe frame Dprojects below the lower edges ot' the blades a and b sufficiently totake the pla-ce ofthe formingframe e and embrace the bed A when theedges of the blades are brought down on the tobacco, and thereby preventthe ends ol' the tobacco from being pressed out, the edges ot' the bed Abeing rabbeted, as represented at c c, to admit the frame to move downuntil the lower edges of the blades reach the bed. When this apparatusis placed under the press a board should be placed on the top of theframe D, so that the tobacco is pressed between the bed A and thisboard; but the board may be dispensed with and the follower of the'press used for that purpose. The frame D is guided in its movements bymeans of dowel-pins d d, projecting from the bed and passing in holes inthe frame, or by any other known mode ot' effecting such an end. Afterthe lumps have been thus formed the apparatusl is removed from thepress, and they are pushed ou't ot' the spaces between the blades by thehand ot' an attendant or in any other desired manner, the blades beingthicker at top than bottom to facilitate this operation.

For the ner kinds ot' tobacco I modify this apparatus in the mannerrepresented in Figs. A

4 and 3. The outenframe, D, in this moditication, instead of being madeto embrace and pass over the rabbeted edges of the bed A, is ot' thesamesizeas the bedA, and when pressed down the projecting edges of theleaves are gripped between the frame and bed, and may then be trimmedoit' with a knife, the bed beyond the frame D being cut out, as at E, toreceive the ends of the leaves without being pressed, so that when cutot' the cuttings may be used for an inferior quality ot tobacco. In thismodication the guide-pins d are attached to the frame and slide inholesin the bed, and project so far from the edges ot' the frame as asnot to interfere with the ends ofthe leaves ot' tobacco. i

It will be evident that the frame D may have any desired number ot'blades and spaces Within the capacity ofthe press to be used, and thatthe operation may be reversed by piling the leaves onto the blades, theframe D being reversed for that purpose, which in the arrangement firstdescribed will dispense with the firmer C; but I lnention this simplyfor the scribed, in combination with the bed, whereby purpose of showingwhat alterations may be made without changingthe principle of myinvention, although I give the preference to the first and second modesdescribed.

Having thus fully described my invention and the inode of proceeding incarrying into practice my said invention, what I claim as new, anddesire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

The method of forming tobacco-lumps by means ofthe frame C and series ofblades, arranged and formed substantially as herein de- I save muchlabor in arranging the tobaccoleaves, Src., and I am enabled to form andpress a large number of lumps at one operation, to lay the coveringsmooth and even, give a more perfect form, and discharge them from themolds in which they have been formed with greater facility than by theold method.

` HERVEY MOORE.. Witnesses:

SAML. F. ADAMS, DANIEL MALLEROY.

